Shirley says the headline in the Ham & High on 4 June is misleading. DWHC did not “boycott” the meeting with the Whittington management on 3 June. We objected to the way the meeting was being set up – it would have been restricted to a PowerPoint presentation that did not answer any of our questions about the hospital’s future or say anything about planned closures or loss of jobs. “We did not decline their offer of the meeting. We declined the offer under the arrangements that they insisted should operate,” Shirley said.

The Chief Executive at the Whittington, Dr Koh, says the cost of employing the top consultancy company Ernst and Young to help them succeed with their Foundation Trust application is “commercially confident”. What do people think about this?

What we are fighting for

* We are opposed to the rundown, closure or privatisation of all hospitals and hospital departments and any other key health services in North London.

* We want to stop the sell-off of our NHS.

* We call for the repeal of the Health and Social Care Act - the government measure which opened the way for big private companies to take over our hospitals and health services and shut them down if they don't make enough profit.

* We call for full funding of our NHS to meet our health needs, free at the point of delivery.

* We are proud of our caring staff at the Hospital, and welcome the diversity of the staff.